Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Romania: Knauf Insulation has begun mineral wool production at its recently acquired Tarnaveni plant in central Romania after investing Euro4m in upgrades. The investment covered the initial stages of modernisation at the Gecsat plant production line in Mures County, according to a Knauf press release.

A second stage of refurbishment began in September 2022. Once the entire investment plan is implemented, the Knauf Insulation factory in Tarnaveni will have an annual production capacity of about 60,000t/yr of mineral wool, with the aim of serving both domestic needs, as well as markets in Central and Eastern Europe.

Founded in 1918 in Tarnaveni as Ardeleana Glass Factory, former owner Gecsat started producing glass mineral wool at the site in 2007. Knauf announced that it was acquiring the glass mineral wool plant in January 2022 and became its owner in March 2022.

Germany: Heraklith has announced that its wood wool production plant in Simbach will be comprehensively modernised in 2023, alongside a significant increase in capacity. The focus of the planned investment is the moulding of the press line. Here, dimensionally accurate, single-layer lightweight panels and top layers for wood-wool multi-layer panels are created from wood-wool fibres and a mineral binding agent. The conversion work is currently planned for the second half of 2023. However, the exact schedule depends on the delivery situation of some key components.

“The modernisation of the system will ensure the high quality of our Heraklith products in the long term and also further increase occupational safety for our colleagues,” explained Rico Neumann, Director for Sales, Building Construction and Marketing in Germany. “The investment is a positive signal for the long-term prospects of the Simbach site and the future of our most important wood wool plant.”

Markus Uhl, Sales Manager Germany Heraklith Contract Business and Timber Construction, added “Our customers will benefit both from the additional production capacities and from the reliability of the new systems. We assume that our investment will have a significant impact on the rapid availability of our extremely popular wood wool products for underground car park ceilings and timber construction.”

Kazakhstan: KazFeltec and Italy-based Cormatex plan to build a Euro10m natural wool insulation plant in Aktobe Region. Kazakhstan General Newsline has reported that the plant will use local coarse sheep’s wool, a waste product of which 3500t/yr is generated currently in Aktobe. The plant is scheduled for commissioning in mid-late 2023.

US: Knauf Insulation has appointed Valentin Salazar as the manager of its forthcoming glass wool insulation plant at McGregor in Texas. Other hires include Alex Garcia as Health, Safety & Environmental Manager and JT Tristan as Human Resources Manager. Crossland Construction was previously announced as the general contractors for the project in July 2022. The company expects to open its new unit in early 2024.

New Zealand: Fletcher Building Materials recorded consolidated sales of US$5.37bn during its 2022 financial year, up by 4.7% year-on-year from US$5.13bn in the previous year. Its net earnings also rose by 42%, to US$273m from US$193m.

The group's building materials division contributed US$1.02bn-worth (17%) of group sales. The division made capital expenditure investments of US$129m. During the financial year, its insulation subsidiaries Forman Building Systems and Tasman Insulation merged under its new Comfortech business. Comfortech will commission a new glasswool plant in mid-2023. Fletcher Building Materials says that, when operational, the new unit will help to serve increased ceiling insulation demand arising from changes to the New Zealand Building Code.

Fletcher Building Materials chief executive officer Ross Taylor said "The 2022 financial year has not been without its challenges. Global and national supply chain disruptions have continued into the third year of the Covid-19 pandemic." He added "The New Zealand Commerce Commission recently published its interim market study report into residential building supplies. The final report and recommendations will be published in December 2022 and in the meantime we will continue to work collaboratively with both the commission and the government."

South Korea: KCC Corporation is upgrading its Gimcheon and Munmak glass wool plants. A second production line is being built at the Gimcheon plant in Gyeongbuk and the production capacity of the existing production line is being increased at the Munmak plant in Gangwon-do. The upgrade projects will be completed in October and March 2023 respectively. Once finished the combined projects will increase the company’s total production of glass wool by 80,000t/yr.

KCC says that it is making the investment in inorganic insulation production capacity in response to revisions to local building regulations. It added that the law was changed in 2021 due to several fire-related incidents. The upgrades are also expected to reduce production costs per unit.

US: Huntsman Corporation has started commercial operation of a new US$180m methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) splitter at its Geismar plant in Louisiana. The new splitter will allow the chemical manufacturer to produce more grades of MDI than previously. Company president and chief executive officer Peter Huntsman attended an inaugural event as well as the Jeff Landry, the Attorney General of Louisiana.

“The new splitter reinforces our strategy of delivering value over volume by creating a more differentiated product portfolio,” said Tony Hankins, president of Huntsman’s Polyurethanes division. “It enables us to provide our customers in automotive, furniture, construction, adhesives and coatings markets with more options for innovative, sustainable polyurethanes products.”

Huntsman produces a range of chemicals including polyisocyanurate (PIR) and polyurethane (PUR) building insulation products.

Libya: Al-Hosn International Company for Building Materials Industry has partnered with China and Germany-based Zenith to establish an insulated concrete block plant. The Benghazi Chamber of Commerce has held a meeting with the companies to discuss their plans.

Ukraine: Ireland-based Kingspan plans to spend Euro200m towards building a ‘Building Technology Campus’ in Ukraine. The site will be used to manufacture insulation and district heating products. Development of the project is due to start immediately with eventually commissioning forecast for 2027. The insulation company has appointed a project team to identify a suitable site, likely to be in the west of the country, and is liaising with the Ukrainian Government. Over 600 jobs are expected to be created when the site opens.

Gene Murtagh, the chief executive officer of Kingspan Group, said “This investment sits at the crossroads of three crises: the climate crisis, the energy security crisis, and the crisis caused by the Russian war against Ukraine. The new Building Technology Campus we are planning will make positive contributions on all three fronts, supporting Ukraine as it rebuilds its economy, meeting demand across central and Eastern Europe for energy efficient buildings, and helping Europe to reduce reliance on oil and gas imports.”

Kingspan previously said it had exited the Russian market and divested its operations to local management in April 2022 following a decision made in March 2022.

Russia: Denmark-based Rockwool says that it is running its four plants in Russia as a standalone operation. However, it is continuing conducting business to avoid the nationalisation of its assets and the loss of its intellectual property. The insulation producer previously said that it had cancelled all investments in the country since the start of the war in Ukraine.